The Value of Work vs The Dignity of Labour

I started thinking about this post on 1st May, May Day, AKA International Workers Day, or, in some countries outside of the UK -Labour Day. But, after an inspiring visit to the Rowland Road Working Mens Club on the Bank Holiday weekend, I decided that a celebration of their hard work and collaboration with Yorkshire Contemporary on the Play Patch Project, a triumph of hard work and community engagement, to be much more appropriate. 

Returning to this post I started to think about my chosen subject matter in relation to Oscar Wilde’s comment that a cynic, or a fool, is:

“A man who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing”

Oscar Wilde. Lady Windermere’s Fan 

GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is, according to the OECD, “the standard measure of the value added created through the production of goods and services in a country during a certain period”. The IMF (International Monetary Fund) argue that it is not a good way to measure value as it does not take into consideration “factors crucial to overall well-being, such as income distribution, environmental quality, and subjective well-being.” It is in the analysis of Gross Domestic Product by its detractors at the IMF that we see Wilde’s analysis of price and value writ large. 

Productivity and growth are buzzwords on the lips of society’s so called leaders at all times. Many from all sides, take a sneering swipe across the bows of the working class vessels when they talk about getting people working again. The idea that the UK has become unproductive is not fiction, but the way in which it has been characterised as a problem created by the work-shy and lazy is far from the truth of the matter. For the truth we need to go back to the post-war de-industrialisation of the UK that accelerated during the seventies and eighties, to see the signposts that have led us to where we find ourselves today. 

We often hear the winds of cognitive dissonance as they blow through political debate when people talk about getting the young (by which they mean work-shy) into work, whilst saying that the old must be encouraged to remain in work as we need their skills. So, if we are encouraging older people to remain in work beyond retirement, the system of employment in its entirety just becomes a case of dead man’s shoes. In a system such as that how do you encourage the young to work? Where is the impetus? -is it that the old must die in order to move on, knowing that as we get older the future holds the exact same fate for us. Work until our bodies break 

Far be it from me to suggest that we need to find a reason for the young to want to work. After all, as someone once said ‘such is life in all its stages, we only work to get our wages’. Interestingly the AI overview of that saying calls it a ‘cynical view of work, highlighting the perceived necessity of labor solely for financial gain.’ Well, AI needs to learn that the need for money in a society predicated on the idea of price rather than value is not just perceived. The gov.uk page linked to the overview gives further insight as to why the phrase is thought of as cynical. The page, containing a report by the ‘Low Pay Commission’ entitled ‘Is It Just Wages That Matter?’, states that

‘Jobs include a range of non-wage benefits. First, jobs provide monetary benefits outside of core pay, such as shift premiums or pension contributions. Second, the terms and conditions of jobs can vary, such as annual leave policy, flexible working arrangements and guaranteed hours. Finally, the nature of the work matters. Some types of work are more enjoyable than others, although this will depend on individual preferences.’

Monetary benefits outside of core pay, is only beneficial to those whose core pay allows them to survive without performing extra work on top of the duties for which they have been employed. If people have to work extra hours on top of their contracted shifts in order to merely survive, then it means an individual is not being paid their worth. Without the basics people will struggle to survive, and if we cannot survive then the idea that we could ever thrive becomes unlikely if not impossible. What is the value of a human life and where is the dignity of labour?

The second law of thermo dynamics states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, it is a finite resource in a closed system. Therefore whilst GDP, economic growth, is considered an infinite possibility and the barometer of our true worth and happiness as humans, the closed system that is environmental reality tells a different story. 

In his book ‘The Cancer Stage of Capitalism’ John McMurtry suggests that unchecked capitalist growth is destructive and invasive, much like a tumour in the body. With this thought in mind we must question the idea of continual growth and understand the difference between cost and value. It is only once we understand this that we can then challenge the system in its most basic assumptions about what it means to be human.

To conclude; If we imagine a point in the future where everyone is employed, no one is on benefits (I know, I know, stay with me on this one…), productivity has reached its peak and there is no more growth to be had; what then do we do to maintain our GDP, because if we don’t we will all surely become unhappy and life will no longer be worth living. Or will it?

I don’t know, you tell me…